Brooke L. Rollins

Rule Changes

Leading the reorganization; plan blocked by court injunction

The Agriculture Department has cut its workforce by about 20% since December 2024, from 91,000 employees to 73,000. It also wants to move about half its Washington-area staff to offices around the country.

Updated 2 days ago

Rule Changes

Lead defendant; says USDA is 'full bore ahead' on reorganization

won a court-ordered pause this week It also bars moving employees outside their local commuting area and enforcing relocation letters across eight department components, including the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland. In early November, USDA asked the judge to lift that pause, saying it "significantly hinders" operations across the department.

Updated 5 days ago

Force in Play

Leading the federal response as cases spread to wildlife and southern ports reopen in phases

Mexican cattle began crossing at Columbus, New Mexico, on October 26, ending a closure of nearly two years at a port that normally handles about a third of US cattle imports from Mexico. The same week, the USDA confirmed screwworm in a dog in Arizona and reported 71 US cases since June, 18 of them still active.

Updated Oct 30

New Capabilities

Announced the Seed Sovereignty Initiative

The U.S. national seed collection holds more than 600,000 samples across 16,000 species, stored in 22 repositories. About 10% of that material has been genetically described in any detail.

Updated Oct 26

Built World

Announced the loan October 2026

The U.S. Department of Agriculture lent a Georgia electric cooperative $3.3 billion to help finish a 1.4-gigawatt natural-gas plant, the largest loan in Rural Utilities Service history. The plant is going up about half a mile from land Google bought for a data center.

Updated Oct 20

Rule Changes

Issued a statement supporting the order on the day of signing

Truckers and farmers can burn tax-exempt "red dye" diesel on public highways through the end of the year under an executive order Trump signed October 5 in Grand Island, Nebraska. The order defers the 24.3-cent-per-gallon federal excise tax on that fuel through December 31, with no interest or penalties.

Updated Oct 18

Rule Changes

As of September 2026: Backing the executive order

President Trump signed an executive order Sept. 4 directing the Interior Department to determine whether gray wolves and Mexican gray wolves have recovered enough to lose Endangered Species Act protections. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has 90 days to decide whether to begin delisting the animals, a process that would shift wolf management from federal to state control.

Updated Sep 7

Force in Play

As of May 2026: Suspended $129 million in USDA awards to Minnesota on January 10, 2026

On January 5, 2026, Governor Tim Walz announced he would drop his bid for a third term. The reversal came just two days before a contentious January 7 House Oversight Committee hearing where Republican state lawmakers testified that Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison ignored widespread fraud and silenced whistleblowers.

Updated May 21

Money Moves

As of May 2026: Overseeing 2025 farm aid and trade mitigation programs

Since 2018, U.S. farmers have been caught in Trump-era tariff battles—first the U.S.–China trade war, now tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico, and others. To counter lost exports and depressed prices, the Trump administrations funded large farm aid through the Agriculture Department's Commodity Credit Corporation: $12 billion in 2018, $16 billion in 2019.

Updated May 10